Page 17 of Victoria's Embrace

“What?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re not saying something.”

He stopped and met her questioning stare, his expression inscrutable. “You think they insist on going only because they want to help other slaves. That is a large part of it, but they go because of you. You have gained their loyalty. They follow you, my Vee.”

“What? I– no,” she scoffed.

He just smiled softly which, for reasons she couldn’t quite put her finger on, made her heart start pounding.

“You’re wrong. I’m not the badass savior who inspires people and builds an army and takes over the world. That’s Aria. At most, I’m the plucky sidekick, and even that’s a stretch.”

He cocked a brow and gently turned her around so she could see everyone getting ready. “Look. They do not gaze at me or Thorn or Vi’kail with admiration and gratitude. They know it was you that saved them. You have built yourself a little army, my sweetling, whether you intended to or no.”

She wanted to dispute what he was saying, but she caught the looks they sent her way, the little nods, the small smiles. It was way too similar to the way people looked at Aria. Hell, it was the wayshelooked at Aria.

And it scared the absolute shit out of her.

Swallowing hard, she turned back to Thegan, staring up at him with wide, unnerved eyes. He smiled again and dropped a soft kiss on her brow then pulled back far enough to meet her gaze.

“Aria is dangerous, ruthless, and unyielding. The people know few, if any, can stand against her. They follow her because they know she is honorable and trustworthy and will not turn against them. They know she will win this war for the simple fact that she will not stop until she has done so. But, to do that, she must take the broad view. She stands apart. You, my mate, stand among. They trust Aria to save them. They trust you to heal them. You inspire a different kind of fealty, but it is fealty, nonetheless. And, though you may not see it yet, youarea warrior. You fight for them. You do everything you can to help them. More, they know you will do everything you can so they can help themselves. For people who have been made helpless, having someone help them stand on their own is just as powerful as having someone stand for them.”

Victoria knew he was vastly overestimating the effect she’d had on people. Yes, she talked with them, helped them adjust to freedom, listened to their troubles, and did what she could to help. She helped them find places for themselves among the population of the complex because she, of all people, knew that having purpose and meaning was crucial to anybody’s happiness and confidence. But he did all those things, as well. So did Tirox and Rellik and the rest of Aria’s Generals.

She wasn’t doing anything different than they were. Was she? She was just a… therapist, basically. Right?

* * *

The journeythrough the city was nerve-wracking, to put it mildly. The fear that, at any second, someone would look at her, see through her bluff, and call the guards on them never lessened despite having been walking out in the open for the better part of an hour.

Victoria did her best to hide her anxiety and channeled Aria, keeping her expression stony, her eyes flat and constantly scanning the people around her, hand resting almost lazily on the blaster hanging from a holster Thorn made her.

The hardest part was resisting the urge to continuously glance at Vi’kail walking a ways ahead of her or behind to check on her group of ‘slaves.’

By the time the outer wall of the slave market came into view, her back was slick with sweat in defiance of the cool night air, but instead of feeling relief that they’d arrived unscathed, her stomach dropped at what she saw.

There were beings everywhere. The lights from the market illuminated the night and she could hear the sounds of people yelling, slaves screaming, and animals roaring, even from where she stood at least five hundred feet away.

They’d hoped the constant activity Rykar said surrounded the market would’ve died down quite a bit by the time they got there. They’d intentionally timed their arrival for the middle of the night and took a path that brought them to the side of the market, a fair distance from the busy entrance, through a shopping district that would be closed and, therefore, empty.

Except it wasn’t.

Fuck fuck fuck!

Her steps faltered. She didn’t know what to do. Should she give the signal to retreat and head back to the boutique? Try again the next night? But they’d already been gone from the complex for days. There was no telling what kind of trouble that horned bitch was causing. She could be hurting people, could have already taken over and rounded everybody up for execution or sold them into slavery like she had Victoria and her guys. They needed to get back. Besides all that, there was no telling if that poor woman Rykar told them about would still be there the next night.

Forcing herself to maintain her speed as that of someone with somewhere to go but not in a rush to get there, she waited until Vi’kail glanced casually back at her then gave him the signal they needed to meet up.

Ducking into the dark alley she’d seen him go into a few minutes later, she went straight to Rykar.

“Are we still going to be able to use the back entrance you told us about?”

She couldn’t make out his features well in the low light, but she heard his rough sigh. “I do not know. But I think it is still our best chance.”

“Okay.” Blowing out a breath, she rubbed her sweaty hands over her pants. “How’s everyone holding up? Y’all okay?” She resisted the urge to ask, yet again, if they still wanted to go with them. She wanted them to stay where it was safe, badly, but she didn’t want to demoralize them and make them think she didn’t believe them capable.

“We are well, Vee,” the older woman, Sindri, assured softly, patting Victoria’s back.

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